What I Did To My Saab Today.

[fka]

Only had an ad on UKS and it was picked up within a day by a reasonably well known dealer. Deposit paid last week, collected today.
The v10 was very tempting but I wanted something newer. Started a new job in May and I have no time or will at the moment to spend fixing my daily. Ignition switch was on the way out on the 9-5 and that was the final straw.
This one shifts 0-60 (to 62 in 6.1 seconds on paper). Doesn't come close the the 9-5 midrange at motorway speeds though. But that's not the point, it wafts perfectly well.
And thanks, I'm sure to pop in from time to time.

[sgould]

Today I took advantage of a dry and warmish day to put a new door seal on the driver's door of the 9-5.

While I had the sill trim off, I sprayed some Waxoyl down the holes into the sill.  I found that even at 8ºC I still needed to soak the Waxoyl in hot water to get it to flow.

Looks like the battery is going flat, so it will get a conditioning charge after I've had a sandwich for lunch.

[sgould]

I left the battery on charge for a few hours yesterday, until the "charged enough to start the car" light came on.  I was going to continue the charge today, but it's pouring with rain.  It's forecast to be dry all day tomorrow, so I may do a full reconditoning. 

The only worry is that there is a sign that a mouse has been living on the top of the DI unit...

[Geoff1951]

Eek !

[phoenix]

(yesterday) I finally got round to making a start some rear end maintenance on the 9-5- rust treatment of the arches, rose joint bushes, swapping the springs out for Eibachs.

Despite a thorough soaking with pen oil, the nut was so seized on top of the first shock that I managed to shear off the hex bit of the shaft  .

It took mole grips plus 14 stone of me standing on water pump pliers gripping the shock shaft plus repeated cycling of the impact gun to finally get it off. So I now have to buy new shocks...

Also fitted a new stat to the NG9-3. Initially, it warned up much quicker confirming my suspicion that the old one was faulty. However it started opening at around 74 degrees, so I now have to swap that out as well. It was a Circoli from ECP for those who may want to avoid it.

[sgould]

Mine wasn’t as bad as that, but once off, it was clear that the shock absorbers were shot.  There was a couple of inches of free play in them!  The other thing was that the top bushes were also dead. They were stuck to the shock absorber shaft and came off in two bits.   I had trouble sourcing replacement bushes at the time.  I eventually found some on eBay Italia...

[phoenix]

Most of it is OK- just the combined bump stop/dust cover that needs replacing.

[phoenix]

Shock #2 was even worse- top so corroded that I couldn't even get a socket on it. Had to resort to the Dremel to cut down between the nut and thread then impact it off.

[sgould]

Today I plan to put fuel in my car.  First time since 29th October. Just have to remember how to do it.

[ScarbSaab]

'04 9-5 Aero. I've replaced the driver's seatbelt which was badly frayed with a new one. I only found out the cause when it was too late to prevent it getting worse, and I've been dreading an MOT failure with the lack of new belts. Everything worked without any dash warnings, and no bang from the pretensioner, so all looks good.

A bolt had come out of the seat hinge, so that's back in with some thread lock. With the side of the seat off I've repaired the broken fastenings for the seat controls - no more flapping about!

In between, I've dismantled the gear lever and replaced the jalousie. Unfortunately the battery went flat whilst I was working the gear select, so now the battery is on charge and the testing will have to wait for tomorrow. However, the wiring was intact so I am reasonably confident the winter button and the sport button will still work. I'll have to double check the sport button... 

[Geoff1951]

Today I plan to put fuel in my car.  First time since 29th October. Just have to remember how to do it.

A month later - how did it go?

[sgould]

It went OK!

So yesterday and today I have been going around the nooks and crannies with a toothbrush cleaning out the mud and moss that  has grown during the year.  Then I gave the Carlsson a quick wash, just to check the new hosepipe.  The old one was 40 years old and had started to crack...

[Geoff1951]

Excellent news!

Since the first lockdown, my annual mileage has dropped from around 12,000 to under 4,000.  Petrol is around the same price as late 2014.

[carrera]

I've done about 7000 in the 2.2 since getting it on the road. Yesterday she needed a replacement strut fitting as the front right spring had broken (I blame speed humps).It was a doddle to do, all nuts came off without issue, the occasional clunking has gone   

[sgould]

We have a Brodit kit for holding a phone over the centre vent of the 9-3 Carlson. It worked well in the old 2003 Vector, but didn’t fit the Carlsson with the satnav. Brodit say it doesn’t fit, but I bodged it a bit and it was OK for a while, but my wife got a new phone which was a tighter fit because the holder wasn’t designed for it, and the holder kept falling off.  The kit is in two parts. One bit that is car specific, and one that is phone specific. The two parts screw together.

So I bit the bullet and bought a clip for attaching it to the A pillar.  It’s on, but a bigger job than the instructions.  It’s supposed to push on, but I had to take the pillar trim off and use some “persuasion”.  I think that the later pillar trim has a slightly thicker cloth covering.  I also took the holder apart and filed away some plastic and it now opens wider and the phone fits!   We drove to Warwick and back yesterday and nothing fell off.